Coulson's Secret

by McIntyre, Anna J

  Chapter 4

  It was almost noon before Kim returned to her mother’s house. When she pulled into the driveway she was surprised to see Adam stepping off the front porch as if he was just leaving. He looked up and seemed startled to see her. She parked the car and glanced around, wondering where Adam had parked his vehicle.

  Kim got out of the Tahoe. Adam walked toward the car to meet her.

  “Hi. This is kind of a surprise,” Kim said as she closed the car door behind her. Instead of going immediately to the house, Kim took a quick detour to the mailbox at the end of the driveway to pick up her mother’s mail. There were two envelopes in the box. They appeared to be utility bills.

  “I thought I’d missed you. Figured you should be home by now. I considered leaving you a note.”

  “But you didn’t,” Kim commented, glancing up to the doorway.

  “No. Some things can’t be written in notes. I kept thinking about you, being here all alone, after just losing your mom.” Adam’s gaze swept over Kim. “I remember how you were there for me when I lost my dad.”

  “Where’s your car?” Kim asked as they walked up to the front door.

  “I walked over,” Adam explained while Kim unlocked the door.

  “From where?”

  “My parent’s old house. It’s mine now.”

  “That’s over four blocks.” Kim pushed open the door and walked through the doorway. Adam followed her.

  “I had a lot to think about,” Adam explained. “It’s a good day for a walk.”

  “A little warmer than how I remember Coulson for this time of year.” Kim dropped her purse on the couch and walked toward the kitchen. “Would you like some tea, coffee?”

  Adam followed her into the kitchen. “Iced tea would be great.”

  Kim started to toss the bills onto the pile of opened mail sitting on the kitchen counter when she paused. Staring at the pile, she frowned.

  “That is odd.” Kim reached down and picked up the top piece of mail. No longer was the opened electric bill on top of the pile. “This isn’t right,” Kim said aloud, speaking more to herself than to Adam.

  “What is it?” Adam watched Kim as she stared at the stack of mail, frowning.

  “Someone has been in here and moved my mail,” Kim said in a quiet voice.

  Adam laughed, not quite believing she would get so upset over the placement of mail on the kitchen counter.

  “No, I remember. I purposely put the electric bill on top,” Kim insisted. She tossed the mail down and started yelling for Jake.

  Adam watched quietly as Kim ran frantically from room to room, calling for someone named Jake. He followed her.

  “Calm down, Kim. Who is Jake?”

  “My cat,” Kim told him, her voice breathless, as she ran up the stairs.

  “You think your cat moved your mail?”

  “Of course not! But if someone was in here, they may have let him out!” Kim snapped as she looked under the bed in her old bedroom before peeking in the study and heading to her mother’s room.

  Just as she reached the door to her mother’s room, Adam called after her.

  “Is Jake black?”

  “Yes! Do you see him?” Kim turned around anxiously. She couldn’t lose Jake; he was all she had.

  Wearing a silly grin, Adam stood by the study door and pointed to the window over the couch. When Kim reached the doorway, she looked to the window. Jake was sitting in a tree limb, looking inside.

  “Jake!” Kim ran to the window and quickly opened it. It didn’t have a screen, which made it easier for her to reach outside and rescue her feline from the branches.

  Kim held Jake in her arms and kissed the top of his head, over and over again. Adam reached around Kim and shut the window.

  “See, mystery solved,” Adam said.

  “No. Someone was in my mother’s house while I was gone.” Kim paused a moment, her eyes wide. “Maybe they’re still here?”

  “Kim, you just raced through every room in this house, and no one is here. Just you and me.”

  “I haven’t checked my mother’s room yet!” Kim clung to Jake. The large feline began to struggle, no longer in the mood for her affection.

  “Okay, you stay here, and I’ll check.” Kim didn’t argue with Adam’s offer. A few seconds later, she heard him yell, “All’s clear,” from her mother’s room.

  As she waited for Adam to join her, Kim sat on the desk chair and released Jake. On impulse, she opened the desk file drawer. It was empty.

  Adam stood at the door to the room and studied Kim.

  “What’s wrong?” Adam asked.

  “I told you someone was here.”

  “Because your cat slipped out when you left this morning and you think someone moved your mail?”

  “First off…” Kim glared angrily at Adam. “I did not let Jake out this morning. I remember seeing him sitting on the windowsill—inside the house—as I drove off this morning. Second, I intentionally placed the electric bill on the top of the pile, not the bottom. Third, when looking for Jake a few minutes ago, I checked all the exterior doors. They were all closed and locked—as was the front door. Finally—and this is the clincher—this drawer was filled with files last night!”

  “How can you be sure?” Adam asked.

  “Because I went through them!” Kim practically shouted.

  “Okay, okay, settle down. I’m starting to agree with you.”

  “Starting?” Kim snapped.

  “Okay, I agree with you. First thing we need to do is call the police chief. Second thing, we call the locksmith and have your locks changed. Whoever was in here must have had a key.”

  Thirty minutes later, Kim sat on the front porch with Adam waiting for the locksmith and patrol car to arrive. Their first call was to the police chief, who didn’t seem especially concerned over the break-in in relation to the murder investigation. The chief suggested thieves had probably broken in after reading about Carol’s death in the newspaper and had expected the house to be empty, but Adam’s arrival scared them away. Yet, he promised to send a patrol car over to make a report.

  “How is Angela going to feel about you being here?” Kim asked. She sat next to Adam on her mother’s porch swing. Their feet gently pushed the swing back before letting it fall forward again.

  “She knows you’re an old friend, and she understands you just lost your mother.”

  “Yes, old friend. Does she know how close we were?”

  “Not exactly.” Adam gave a nervous laugh. They were both quiet for a few minutes, lost in private thoughts.

  “Adam, why are you really here?” Kim asked.

  “Like I said, you were here for me when I needed you.”

  “That was a lifetime ago.”

  “Yes, it was. You seemed a bit surprised at my little sister,” Adam said after a moment’s pause.

  “I remember you telling me Garret had a vasectomy before their wedding, and that they didn’t want kids.”

  “Yes and yes. But, apparently vasectomies don’t always work, and if you have one and then rush out on your honeymoon without the proper follow-up tests—surprise!” Adam laughed.

  “How did they feel about it?”

  “Well, shocked at first. Garret insisted he was too old to be a father, but neither one considered not having the baby.”

  “Like me,” Kim said in a sad voice.

  “Kimmy, we were kids. I now understand your apprehension and why you considered having an abortion. But you didn’t have one.”

  “But I lost our baby.”

  “Yes, but that wasn’t your fault. Sometimes things like that are meant to happen.”

  “Has it been weird for you, knowing your sister is almost the same age as our child would be?”

  “It used to be. But over time, she just became my little sister, which has been great. She also helped me come to terms with Garret.”

  “I did wonder about that. How do you and Garret get along? I remember how ang
ry you were back then.” Kim looked over at Adam. She was amazed at how easy it was to talk to him. It was as if the years had melted away.

  “Actually, we have a good relationship now. I don’t think of him as a replacement for my father. But he has made my mother happy, and he is a terrific father to my sister.

  “After they were married, they planned to travel, but Mom got pregnant, and they cut the trip short. Mom was willing to keep traveling, but Garret wanted her home, near doctors and hospitals he trusted. Aunt Kate was also pregnant, so I think Mom was happy to be close to her sister and to my grandparents during the pregnancy.

  “When not traveling, they were going to live at Garret’s Clement Falls cabin, but after mom got pregnant, they decided to buy a house in town, where they still live.”

  “Clement Falls. That’s right; he has a cabin there. Adam, do you remember how my mom wouldn’t let me go to Clement Falls when I was in high school?” Kim turned around in the swing and looked at Adam. She stopped pushing the porch with her feet, and the swing stopped moving.

  “I remember something about it. It wasn’t a big issue. None of us used to go up there much, since there was no skiing. Although, I’ve been there a lot since Sarah was born. We often spend holidays at the cabin.”

  “I think I know now why she didn’t want me to go up there.”

  “From what I remember, wasn’t it something about the dangerous highway?”

  “That’s what she said, but I don’t think that was the reason.”

  “Then why?”

  “Because my father lives at Clement Falls. He has, ever since he left my mother.”

  Adam stared at Kim. “I thought your father lived in Colorado or somewhere?”

  Kim took a deep breath and leaned back in the swing, looking out over the front yard of her mother’s house.

  “That’s what Mom used to tell me.”

  “I remember he never had anything to do with you. I always felt he was a bit of a douche. Sorry.”

  “That’s okay. I guess a father that wants nothing to do with his child is a bit of a douche. Especially if that father has lived less than an hour from his only daughter for eighteen years. And gets another woman pregnant while his wife is pregnant. Yes, I guess you can call him a douche.”

  “Holy shit, Kimmy, are you serious? Your father had another child?”

  “Yes, a brother. I guess we both got half-siblings after we broke up. Of course, I’ve never met mine.” While it felt good to finally share with someone what she had learned about her father, she could no longer stop the tears.

  Adam reached out and wrapped his arms around Kim, pulling her close. Absently, he kissed the top of her head and tried to soothe her with gentle words. He stood up and pulled Kim to her feet, guiding her into the house. Sitting her on the couch, he grabbed a clean dishtowel from the kitchen and handed it to her to wipe her tears. Finally, she stopped crying.

  “I’m sorry,” Kim said.

  “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for,” Adam said angrily. He wanted to punch her father.

  “I must confess that it feels good to finally have someone to talk to.”

  “You always have me,” Adam whispered.

  Kim looked up into his eyes and smiled, yet she knew it wasn’t the truth. When he married Angela, Adam’s bride certainly wouldn’t appreciate his old girlfriend crying on his shoulder.

  “So, how did you find out?” Adam asked, sitting next to Kim on the couch.

  “A few weeks ago, I decided to do an Internet search on my father. I wondered if he still lived in Colorado. I never had his address, and Mom made it pretty clear he really had no interest in either of us.”

  “You just found out?”

  “Yes.”

  “About your brother, too?”

  “Yes. Apparently, they run some bed and breakfast up there. It belonged to his in-laws. He ran it with his second wife until she died a few years back. His son, my half-brother, still lives there. The two run the business together. In fact, I think I met my brother last night.”

  “What do you mean?” Adam was now sitting close to Kim, his right arm wrapped around her shoulders.

  “When I arrived in town last night, I stopped at the grocery store. I wasn’t watching where I was going, and I ran right into the guy.”

  “With your car?” Adam knew it was a stupid question the moment he asked it.

  “No, silly. I walked into him. About knocked me over. He looked exactly like my father.”

  “Did you say anything to him? Does he know about you?”

  “I don’t know if he knows about me or not. I knew he looked familiar, but I didn’t figure it out until I got here and came across an old picture of my father. It’s the only one I have ever seen of him. I had hoped I would find a current picture of him online, at least on the website for their business but nothing.”

  “Are you certain it’s your father?”

  “Yes, positive. My mother practically verified it, yet she wouldn’t explain.”

  “Can I see the picture?” Adam asked.

  “Sure.” Kim got up from the couch and headed up the stairs toward the study. Adam followed. Once they entered the room, Kim looked at the desk and froze.

  “It’s gone,” Kim said. “I didn’t notice before.”

  “What’s gone?”

  “The box with my old letters to mom and the picture of my father. It was sitting on the desk. Whoever was in this house took the box.”

  Adam didn’t get a chance to respond. In the next moment, the doorbell rang. It was the police officer. By the time Kim sat down with the officer at the kitchen table to fill out the report, the doorbell rang again; it was the locksmith.

  Kim recalled Adam’s suggestion that whoever got in must have had the key. Both the officer and locksmith said that was not necessarily the case, as the locks on Carol’s house would be relatively easy for a career criminal to open. It was also the general consensus that the intruder was not connected to the murderer, but a thief targeting recently deceased people who lived alone. According to both the locksmith and police officer, it was not the first time such a thing had happened in Coulson.

  To make Kim feel more secure, the locksmith upgraded the locks. No one thought to take fingerprints of the doorknobs before the locksmith worked on them, but the police officer didn’t appear overly concerned.

  One more time, before the police officer left, Kim looked around the house to see if anything else was missing. Other than the missing files and shoebox of letters, Kim didn’t know if anything else was gone.

  By the time Adam and Kim were alone again, it was almost four.

  “Wow, I have really eaten up your day. I’m sorry,” Kim apologized.

  “Don’t be.” The two stood in the entry hall of Carol’s house.

  “You know, you haven’t told me what you’re doing these days,” Kim asked, wanting to know all about Adam.

  “Well, I took over my parent’s restaurant after I graduated from college.”

  “Really?”

  “And you?”

  “Real estate. I’m an associate broker with a firm in the Phoenix area.”

  “You were always smart. I bet you’re a damn good Realtor.”

  “I’ve been lucky. Market sucks now, but I’m okay. Do you like the restaurant business?”

  “Yeah, I grew up in it. I don’t think I have the same knack as my father did.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Things have been a little shaky the last couple of years,” Adam explained.

  “Well, the economy sucks. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, it’ll all work out.” Then Adam thought about Harrison Coulson and how his step-uncle’s death would either save his restaurant or bring it crashing down. He didn’t want to think about the various possibilities.

  “So, why aren’t you at work today?” Kim asked, remembering the many hours Adam’s mother had spent at the restaurant after Ryan Keller’s death.

&
nbsp; “I’m taking the week off. We have a good staff. How about you? What are your plans? Did you set a date for your mother’s service?”

  “Wednesday afternoon. I understand the senator’s funeral is set for Friday, according to the funeral home.”

  “Yes. Then what? Are you rushing back to Arizona?”

  “No, my business is a bit slow, too. I thought I would stick around here for a while. I need to get the house ready to list and settle Mom’s estate.”

  “Are you going to see your father and try to meet your brother while you are back?”

  “Actually, I was thinking about going up to Clement Falls tomorrow to pay a little visit.”

  “Seriously?” Adam placed his hands on Kim’s shoulders and looked into her eyes as he asked the question. He couldn’t imagine Kimmy facing her father all alone.

  “Yes, seriously. I need to do this. I have questions, and he has the answers.”

  “Would you like some company?” Adam asked.

  “What about Angela?”

  “I suppose I could say she wouldn’t object to me giving an old friend support, but that would be a lie.”

  “She wouldn’t want you to be supportive of an old friend?” Kim asked, her words barely audible.

  “No, the lie would be that I don’t feel like you’re just an old friend. I don’t understand, but the minute you walked into the police station, I felt something.”

  “What you’re feeling is the past we shared, nothing more.” Kim didn’t believe her own words. She reluctantly admitted to herself that she missed the comfort of Adam’s arms.

  They looked at each other for a few moments, neither of them saying a word. Without thought, Adam leaned down and placed his lips on Kim’s mouth. Instead of pulling away, she leaned into Adam, wrapping her arms around his neck, returning the kiss. There was something comforting and familiar about the intimacy, and she refused to feel guilty for kissing Angela’s fiancé

  When it ended, they pulled away from each other, and Adam took hold of Kim’s hands, holding just her fingertips. He held them for a moment as he studied her expression. Kim smiled up at Adam. She didn’t want to tear his clothes off or have wild sex, yet she had enjoyed the kiss. She enjoyed the physical contact with another human.